New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today remembered the victims of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in his monthly radio address, ‘Mann Ki Baat’, and termed it as India’s “most heinous” terror attack.
“We can never forget this day when India faced its most heinous terror attack,” PM Modi said.
On November 26, 2008, ten heavily armed Pakistani terrorists carried out a series of coordinated attacks in Mumbai. The attacks targeted civilians and security personnel alike, leaving a trail of devastation and loss in their wake.
The terrorists, armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, struck at various locations across the city, including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the Oberoi Trident Hotel, and the Nariman House Jewish community centre.
The terrorists, who had infiltrated the city via the Arabian Sea, killed 166 people, including 18 security personnel, and injured hundreds more. They also caused widespread property damage with the total loss estimated to be worth crores.
The then Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, Army Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Mumbai’s additional police commissioner Ashok Kamte and senior police inspector Vijay Salaskar were among those killed in the attacks.
During the attacks, nine of the ten terrorists were neutralised by security forces. One surviving terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, was arrested and subsequently executed four years later on November 21, 2012.